B-21 Top Recommendation Read More
"I really can't overstate how impressed I am with this distillery." - Andrew Kitz, B-21 Spirits Buyer
Established in 2014, Ardnamurchan is relatively new in the Highland scene, but they've got their feet fully under them, and they've been the talk to the town in Scotch circles for a few years now. The commitment to world-class quality is evident in everything from the distillery's facilities to their production, aging, and blending, resulting in a number of awards and recognitions in several recent industry publications and competitions.
Working with artfully crafted distillate in both peated and unpeated form, these are some of the most compelling new Highland malts to hit the market in some time. We first highlighted this rising star distillery a few weeks ago with their flat-out stupendous Sherry Cask release, and now we're back with the equally prodigious Cask Strength Single Malt. Made with all the same precise craftsmanship yet distinctly different in style than the Sherry Cask, this one of the more refined and poised peated expressions we've come across in a long while. Aged almost entirely in ex-bourbon cask, it's 87% peated and 13% unpeated malt, offering all the requisite smokey personality to satisfy fans of Ardbeg, Laphroiag, and the other iconic peated style, all while maintaining a poised and restrained character that can appeal even to the Scotch novice.
"The smoky quality is incredibly refined on the nose. It's there in spades, but it's no smoke bomb," notes B-21 Spirits Buyer Andrew Kitz, while "the rich, round texture is shockingly gentle for a cask strength bottling." Wonderfully complex yet eminently approachable, the Cask Strength demonstrates the quintessential character of a distillery that should be on every single malt lover's radar. |